THE CHRISTIAN LAWOF

LIFE-GIVING LOVE

“I give you a new commandment:

Love one another as

I have loved you.”

Jn 13:34

304. How can Christian moral life be viewed?

• Christian moral life can be viewed as our free response to God’s call involving three essential levels:

a basic moral vision;

expressed in moral norms and precepts;

exercised in personal moral acts guided by conscience.

305. What is the major problem in Christian moral living?

• Motivation is the major problem in Christian moral living - how we can inspire ourselves

and others to act consistently according

to Christian moral norms.

306. What is the basic Christian norm for moral living?

• The basic standard by which Christians judge

all their thoughts, words and deeds is the person

of Jesus Christ who reveals God as our

Father, and who we truly are.

Christ is the significant “other” in forming:

Our moral vision (values, attitudes, and affections),

Our moral norms, andThe actual decision-making process of our

conscience.

307. What is a norm or law?

• A norm or law is a decree of reason, promulgated by competent authority, for the common good.

• Moral norms, based on moral vision comprising basic moral values, express the objective standard for judging moral good and evil.

308. What are moral norms supposed to do?

• Moral norms are indispensable for moral life. They

provide objective criteria for our conscience to judge what is morally good or evil

Help our moral development,

especially in the formation of conscience

offer the needed moral stability in our lives

Challenge us to stretch for an ideal beyond our limited experience, and correct our personal moral misconception in the process.

309. What was God’s Law in the Old Testament?

• God’s Law in the Old Testament was His great gift to His chosen people, Israel, creating with them a Covenant which called for obedience to His Law as their response to His gratuitous love.

• The danger inherent in all laws is to so focus on the “letter of the law” and its external observance as to ignore the basic human values and interior dispositions which the law was made to preserve.

310. How did Christ in the New Testament relate to the Law?

• Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law by:

inaugurating the New Law of the Kingdom which

perfected by the Old Law by

subordinating all its precepts to love of God and of neighbor

311. What is Christ’s own Law of love?

• In his own life Christ taught and perfectly exemplified the Old Testaments’ two great Commandments of Love:

love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind

love your neighbor as yourself

312. What was new about Christ’s Commandments of love?

• In his “New” commandment of love, Christ:

Stressed the inner bond between love of God and love of neighbor;

Exemplified “heart,” “soul,” and “strength” in his example and teaching, especially his response to the triple temptations experienced in the desert and on the Cross;

Gave a radically new interpretation of “neighbor” as meaning everyone, especially those in need

Summarized and subordinated the whole law and the prophets to these two Commandments alone.

313. How is Christ’s law of love “liberating?

• Christ’s law of love is liberating because it not

only shows us what makes us authentically

free, but through the Spirit of love offers us the power

to fulfill it.

314. What pictures for us Christ’s law of love?

Christ’s Spirit of love liberates us

a) from mere external observance of the law,

b) for a life transformed by radically new values, sketched in the Beatitudes:

Detachment from worldly possessions,

Meekness and compassion

Thirsting for justice and merciful forgiveness

Purity of heartSingle-mindedness in working for peace

315. What is meant by the “Natural Law”?

• Christian moral tradition has developed another type of law called the “natural law” that is

Grounded in our very nature as human persons created by God

Supporting universal objective moral values and precepts

Knowable by all persons using their critical reason, independent of their religious affiliation

316. Has certain abuses of the “natural law” be avoided?

• To avoid the danger of a rationalistic, legalistic interpretation of the “natural law,” stress should be put on certain characteristics:

Its basis in realityIts experiential and historical dimensions

Its dealing with the consequence of our free acts

Its being based on the human person’s nature

317. How is Christ related to the “natural law”?

• The “natural law” and God’s law are united in Christ since:

Everything is created in Christ

He is the final destiny built into the nature of every person

Through the Incarnation, Christ has become the concrete model for every human person, in their daily thoughts and actions

318. What is the process of moral decision-making?

• The process of making moral decisions involves:

We ourselves as the moral agent or doer

Using evaluative knowledge, i.e. personal knowledge of the heart, including affections and imagination

According to our basic moral character and the virtues we have freely developed.

319. What are the stages in moral decision-making?

• Among the many proposed patterns for moral decision making, three stages are essential:

Discerning (STOP: Search, Think, [consult] Others, Pray)

Relevant obligating moral norms

Conscience’s decision in applying the objective norm to the concrete situation/act

320. How does the Church help Catholics in moral decisions?

• The teaching office of the Church (Magisterium) offers Catholics moral guidance and leadership based on the Holy Spirit’s unfailing presence, and the Church’s long tradition and worldwide experience.

• It thus supports and strengthens the essentially relational and communitarian dimensions of our personal consciences in the effort to achieve moral goodness.